Young demonstrator takes part in a march calling for the legalization of marijuana. NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images
Over the last half-decade, a quiet revolution has taken place in American civic life. In red states and blue states, Americans are reliably ditching a generations-old war on drugs.
Embracing legal cannabis—and, as the most recent election cycle demonstrated, allowing Americans to possess psilocybin mushrooms without fear of arrest—is one of the few issues in which polarized political classes have consistently found agreement. Trump voters like weed, Biden voters like weed, and Green Party voters definitely like weed.
This represents a sea change, a true flip-flop in thought and deed, because American voters are ignoring what law enforcement have been telling them for generations. For so long, government officials and other scolds preached that legalization would result in increased youth drug use, more dangerous roads, crime rate spikes, and many other scourges.
One reason why these scare tactics don’t fly as they used to during the Just Say No heyday of the ‘80s and ‘90s is that these claims have been proven to be false with every new state that passes legalization.
“The worst fears of the anti-legalization crowd haven’t come to pass,” said Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver and a nationally recognized expert on the…
Original Author Link click here to read complete story..
Young demonstrator takes part in a march calling for the legalization of marijuana. NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images
Over the last half-decade, a quiet revolution has taken place in American civic life. In red states and blue states, Americans are reliably ditching a generations-old war on drugs.
Embracing legal cannabis—and, as the most recent election cycle demonstrated, allowing Americans to possess psilocybin mushrooms without fear of arrest—is one of the few issues in which polarized political classes have consistently found agreement. Trump voters like weed, Biden voters like weed, and Green Party voters definitely like weed.
This represents a sea change, a true flip-flop in thought and deed, because American voters are ignoring what law enforcement have been telling them for generations. For so long, government officials and other scolds preached that legalization would result in increased youth drug use, more dangerous roads, crime rate spikes, and many other scourges.
One reason why these scare tactics don’t fly as they used to during the Just Say No heyday of the ‘80s and ‘90s is that these claims have been proven to be false with every new state that passes legalization.
“The worst fears of the anti-legalization crowd haven’t come to pass,” said Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver and a nationally recognized expert on the…